A Quilt for my Niece - Part 2!

And the quilting began!  Yes, indeed, I have a very small armed machine, and yes, indeed, the quilt is about 6 x 6 1/2 feet.  It was fun times for all.  Surprisingly it wasn't horrible, which I was sort of expecting.  It slid through the arm much easier than expected when I needed it to and I tried quilting in a way that didn't require an enormous amount of whole quilt turning.

I love the back.  I quilted around each diamond in the ditch, then made an X through each large diamond (again stitching in the ditch) that made up the star, effectively creating 4 diamonds inside the larger one...

...which looks like this on the back, which I love!!!

This is a larger picture of the back.  I didn't divide up the diamonds that go around the star, I liked leaving them emptier, bringing the focus on the center star.  (Sorry for inadequate pictures, I was in a poorly/not really lit at all apartment in Salt Lake.)  

This next one is to show you how amazingly my seams match up!  I was quite proud of myself.

I quilted nonagons in each corner triangle of the quilt.  (Yellow side is top, lilac side is the back).  I quilted both top and bottom in yellow, so it blended on the top and just peeked through on the back.  

I then quilted each yellow square around the star with things my niece is interested in.  The fabrics a bit wrinkled from being folded, but you can still see the quilting.

A microscope for her love of science...

The deathly hallows symbol from Harry Potter...

A piano keyboard for her love of music...

and a wolf, because they're awesome! (and she likes them)

I put stars in the other 4 squares.

2 Star of Davids...

And 2 five pointed stars...

I was so excited to be done with the quilt, when I found this...

Somehow the fabric got sliced through, all the way from front to back.  I don't know how, since I wasn't near this thing with a rotary cutter once I started sewing it together, yet that's what it looks like happened.  So I put my thinking cap on.

I hadn't made a label for the quilt, so I decided to use this as an opportunity.  I embroidered her initials on a scrap of matching yellow and stitched it on the front to patch the slice...

...and then embroidered my initials and the year on purple and stitched it on the back.

I think it was rather genius, and now there's a bit of a label on it.  So there's the quilt!  I'll try to get it outside and in natural light for a nice big picture before sending it off.  But in the meantime, check out our chicken pot pie we made today...

Yeah, it was a bit much.  We took off the top half of filling and saved it for another pie for another day.  Yay for more pie!

See you soon!

(with a sneak at a current project!?)